Well, this is not fly-fishing related but I wanted to post it anyway. As some here know, I’m an avid shutter bug and shoot most of the photos that Mustad uses for marketing as well as shooting photos for several others companies in the tackle industry. Well I got a call about 3 weeks ago that one of my shots was being considered for the cover of Sport Fishing magazine. It made the final cut and now the shot is gracing the front cover of the April '09 issue and I’m just so excited. This is the biggest and best fishing publication circulated globally (in my opinion) and getting a cover hot here is the holy grail. This makes all the time spent shooting photos when I could be fishing well worthwhile : )
For those of you who do not get this magazine here is a scan of the cover
It will take a while for the grin to wear off!
For those interested, the photo was taken the last day of the Miami Billfish Tournament in 2008. This sneaky fish ate a bait literally as “lines out” was being called by the tournament director (which means the days fishing is over) so the fish didn’t count for the event. I hooked the fish and quickly passed the rod off so I could shoot some photos. I was using a Canon 10D with the Canon 70-200mm 2.8 Super Bowl sized lens. Hey I’d rather be lucky than good any day.
Motor drives in the old days took a lot of the luck out of it. With a 250 shot magazine and banging 4 frames per second, you were almost assured of getting a great shot.
Congrats on the cover shot, that is, indeed, a rather large feather in one’s cap.
Dr. Fish,
Congratulations on taking such a great action photo! Be sure to have the cover matted and framed. Maybe you could have the original photo framed also?
Doug
Great shot Jeff, someone else said it, Frame It! Priceless S
(I’m proud of ya to, Jeffie. I’ve seen many of your shots, top notch stuff; a tip of the Castwell hat on this one though.)
Wow IS all you can say. A thrill to be on deck to watch the fight, and the shot is perfect and captures it all. Great memory for you. (too bad it didn’t count in the tournament)
Thanks for the kind words. I really love shooting photos BUT I’m even crazier about fishing so stopping fishing to spend LOTS of time shooting photos can be real tough at times. A couple years ago I was out shooting Sailfish photos with a buddy off Ocean Reef in the Keys and it was the most amazing Sailfish bite I’ve ever seen. We had released 14 Sails by 10:30 in the morning and I stayed on the camera the whole time. There were only 3 of us in the boat and we had triple-headers 3 times and even 2 quadruple headers so it was nuts. My buddies were yelling at me to drop the #@&% camera and grab a rod. It killed me to not be in the action cranking on fish that day BUT if you are going to get the shots you need you take one for the team and make the sacrifice. Then there is the serious hassle of lugging near 40 pounds of camera gear everywhere, INCLUDING when hiking in 6 miles and up 2000’ in elevation. Then there is fighting the wind, rain, snow, seas and such but all that said, I still LOVE doing it. One of these days I sure would like to get some formal training as to this point I’m 100% self-taught.
As for the gear I used . . .
This shot was taken with a Canon 10D and a Canon 70-200mm 2.8 Super Bowl sized lens. The camera is mine, the lens was rented as the $1400 lens price tag was too steep for me. Now however I’m ready to pull the trigger and will be purchasing the Sigma version of that lens which has gotten great reviews and is some $600 less. Now I’m shooting with the Canon 40D and use the 10D as a back up.
That fish cooperated for me jumping a few times fairly close to the boat. Here is another shot of that same fish : )
and still one more shot . . .
and here is the VERY BEST one of all which I took just last week. My two boys exercising the Trout in the creek next to my house : )
Catching a Sailfish is my absolute #1 bucket fish. Forget Marlin…, but a trip for Sails could be doable for me someday. Great pix, and like the boy’s hats…
Well the Sailfish thing is EASILY done and you can do that right out of south Florida. All the Sailfish you could ever want in that hot zone from West Palm Beach to Key West. Flights are cheap, many of the best of the best Sailfish captains on the globe reside there. Dec - March is prime time with at least a couple Sailfish a day a near guarantee. I personally have had several days with more than 10 Sail’s caught and released there.
Now doing it on the fly there is far more challenging as they are not so keen on flies as their Pacific cousins are but it most certainly can be done. The Western Atlantic Sail is not fond of electric pink chicken flies as the Pacific fish are but tie up some flies that look much like what our Sail’s are feeding on (Ballyhoo, Threadfin Herring, Spanish Sardine, Alewives, Goggleeye (Big Eye Scad) and so on and you cn indeed catch these Sail’s.
If you need some guide recommendations just let me know . . .
great pictures Dr.Fish, i dont want to jumpin on your thread dut wanted to ask Crazy4old cars how it the fishing in his part of texas. if this is not propper then please let me know
Superb shots! I do hope that Canon has some type of forum to post in and that you submitted there. Hey come on over and join our Photographer’s Corner group here. Love to have ya there.
